Buddhism: religion of the internet? Digitizing the word.

Last updated on: May 5, 2013 at 9:34 pm by Justin Whitaker

Buddhism: religion of the internet? Digitizing the word. 2013-05-05T21:34:53-06:00 Justin Whitaker

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Australian Broadcasting Company (ABC), has a couple podcasts and articles this week on this topic:

- Buddhism: made for the internet and
- Buddhism on the Move.

The article surrounding the first begins:

At the heart of Buddhism is a metaphor for interconnectedness: Indra’s net. The Vedic god’s net, which is supposed to hang over his palace on Mount Meru, is said to stretch to infinity. At each point where the threads cross sits a jewel that reflects all the other jewels, and like mirrors within mirrors, the entire cosmos is reflected.

Lewis Lancaster, Professor Emeritus of Buddhism at the University of California at Berkeley, knows how apt that metaphor is in the current world. For years he’s struggled to find an adequate way of documenting the complicated, almost infinite spread of Buddhism from its 5th century BCE Indian origins. That is, until he found an equally complex instrument to map the ancient faith.

Prof. Lancaster’s project provides an amazing visual and current image of Buddhism as it is being practiced and has been practiced throughout time and around the world, the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative. He has been working for over a decade on compiling the data needed for this (not unlike the prolific work of Charles Muller, and others, to compile the Digital Dictionary of Buddhism).

If you haven’t seen it yet, Prof. Lancaster’s lecture 5 years ago in California gives a comprehensive overview of Buddhism and his work to make it better known:

Returning to the present, Lancaster was interviewed today for ABC by Dr Rachel Kohn to discuss the movement of Buddhism and how it became

Prof. Lancaster with his graduate student Ven Jue Wei at the ABC site (with Dr Kohn inset).

the “first world religion.” As it spread, he suggests, it altered beliefs and practices where ever it when. It even likely influenced the ‘cults of relics‘ that would later develop widely throughout Christianity – though he notes that this is not a fact widely acknowledged (as far as he knows) by researchers in Christianity.

He also notes that Buddhists have never denied the reality of the world, never, contrary to a lot of what people continue to write about Buddhism today. As he says, the way that our mind comes into contact with that world is at the center of Buddhist analysis – “what we perceive is not the thing itself. What we perceive is partly what our cognition constructs for us.” No, Lancaster hasn’t been reading Kantian epistemology*, but yes, he is pointing out a striking similarity between Buddhist accounts of our relation to the world and that of the 18th century German philosopher.

It’s an excellent talk with a wonderfully well-versed Buddhist scholar. Ven. Jue Wei enters with her research toward the end of the interview. I highly recommend downloading/listening to the full talk.

* Here is a helpful review of a recent philosophy text on Kant’s Epistemology. And the book is here.

The Sociology of Early Buddhism by Greg Bailey and Ian Mabbett
Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benares to Modern Colombo by Richard Gombrich
The Spread of Buddhism by Ann Heirman and Stephan Peter Bumbacher (eds), and
The Foundations of Buddhism, by Rupert Gethin

Previous Post

May 3, 2013

A recent Catholic take on Buddhism

Next Post

May 7, 2013 More Buddhism in Congress? This time it could be via Republican Mark Sanford.

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Academia Activism American Buddhism Art Book review Buddhism Buddhism Today Buddhist Ethics Burma/Myanmar China Christianity Commodification Environment Gender Happiness Health Humor India Interfaith Islam Japanese Buddhism Kant Media / News Meditation mindfulness Photography Poetry Politics quicktakes Running Teaching Technology Thailand Theism/Atheism Theravada Tibet Tibetan Buddhism Travels Uncategorized Unitarian Universalism video Western Philosophy Zen

Select a Month June 2021 January 2021 November 2020 August 2020 July 2020 March 2020 January 2020 October 2019 August 2019 June 2019 May 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 November 2004 September 2004 August 2004

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz